The essay — which originally appeared in the journal Fourth Genre Spring 2012 — is about reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with his adopted son, DJ. Resisting the claims of impaired imagination and empathy in autism, the piece recounts how DJ especially identified with the novel's orphan hero, having himself been abandoned and abused as a small child.

You can find the essay and other publications by Grinnellians on Digital Grinnell.